A Kentville man arrested on July 25, 2013 on charges of possession with the intent to traffic was found guilty on April 14.

Judge Alan Tufts sentenced Allen Frederick Mahaney, 48, to 29 months of federal jail time. Tufts also imposed a lifetime firearm ban and a ordered him to submit a DNA sample. In addition, Mahaney must forfeit all items seized during his arrest.

At the time of his arrest, Mahaney was in possession of 39 dilaudid pills in an unmarked container, a notebook with notations pertaining to drug sales and a cell phone that had incriminating text messages on it.

Mahaney claimed at the time that the bag containing all the incriminating evidence was not his. He told the court that he had seen his daughter in the company of a man he did not want her interacting with and that he had grabbed the bag from that man. Tufts found his defence not to be credible, pointing out that he had the bag in his possession for many hours between the time he allegedly grabbed it off the man and when he was arrested.

Mahaney has a lengthy criminal record that dates back to 1994, including previous drug offences.

The Crown prosecutor asked Tufts to sentence Mahaney to three years in custody. He told the court a three-year sentence would send a message of deterrence to the community, which has a problem with prescription drug abuse.

Defence lawyer Christopher Manning, who was representing Mahaney, told Tufts a two-year sentence was more appropriate, but Tufts disagreed, instead sentencing him to 29 months.

When asked if he had anything to say to the courts Mahaney responded, “If the police had investigated more, there would have been a different outcome.”